Korean Journal of Otorhinolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery. Published online May 16th, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3342/kjorl-hns.2018.00283

Yong Gi Jung, Jung-yon Ko

Abstract

With the recent development of information and communication technology, social interest in virtual reality (VR) is increasing rapidly. VR technology is expanding into applications such as games, movies, entertainment, healthcare, education/media, manufacturing, and construction. In the healthcare, VR is used for surgical training, medical education, rehabilitation medicine, pain control, and treatment for psychiatric disorder, but the market size of VR in healthcare is not big compared to VR application in other industries. However, as the demand for high-quality medical care increases and the training time of the resident physicians is reduced, the demand for VR in the healthcare is expected to increase rapidly. Especially, the nose and paranasal sinus are composed of complicated osseous structures, which makes it difficult to understand the exact anatomy and requires highly skilled techniques to perform accurate and safe surgery. For this reason, nose and sinus are a suitable field to apply VR technology. In this review article, we describe the overview of VR technology used in healthcare, the status and prospects of VR in endoscopic sinus surgery and facial plastic surgery.